Mumbai: With only two months remaining of the financial year 2019-20, the Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) undertaking revealed that there has been an increase in its expenditure, since the fare reduction of its buses.
BEST reduced the bus fares from July 9 by bringing down the minimum fare of Rs 8 to Rs 5 for the first five kilometers.
Hence, its expenditure rose to Rs 83 crore in the last seven months from Rs 55 crore. The estimated average monthly expenditure, which varied between Rs 15-16 crore monthly, now stands between Rs 17-18 crore.
Though there has been an increase in revenue, the high rate of expenditure results in more fiscal deficits, which reduces the rate of profit.
Over the last seven months, BEST earned a revenue of Rs 365 crore with an average varying between Rs 2-2.5 crore daily.
However, before the fare waiver, the revenue earned in the first three months of 2019-20 financial year stood at Rs 226 crore.
“The drop in fares has resulted in an increase in revenue. BEST is completely dependent on its earnings from the tickets and we have to maintain everything from only the revenue generated from tickets,” said a senior BEST official.
On the brighter side, since the fare drop, it witnessed an increase in ridership with the numbers going up to 30 lakh people daily.
January 2020 witnessed the highest footfall of passengers with an average of 29.07 lakh commuters regularly and the monthly revenue also stands at Rs 56 crore.
“The ridership in buses have skyrocketed since the fare reduction. However, as the ticket prices are almost halved, not much is going to the revenue bank,” the official stated.
“In order to generate more revenue and minimize the fiscal deficit, we have introduced buses on shorter routes procured on wet-lease. Things will definitely improve but with time,” he added.
For the remaining two months BEST is expecting a revenue worth Rs 106 crores between February and March.
The transport undertaking has also stated, for the financial year 2019-20 the total estimated revenue stands at Rs 698.16 crores.
